Colorado's congressional delegation divided on Obamacare funding

WASHINGTON — Colorado's four Republicans will vote yes on a measure Friday that continues to fund the federal government but strips money to implement the president's signature health care law — a move that is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House.

Colorado's Democratic House members will vote against the measure because they don't believe in defunding the Affordable Care Act, they said Thursday.

And Colorado's two Senate Democrats said they are frustrated that, at this hour, House Republicans are not making genuine efforts to keep federal funding coming when there is so much at stake.

The sharp differences illustrates why Congressional Democrats and Republicans are inching closer to a potential government shutdown.

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After Friday's vote, House Republicans and Senate Democrats have just ten days to come together to figure out a way to keep the lights on before Washington runs out of money Sept. 30.

Republicans want larger budget cuts and no funding for the Affordable Care Act. Democrats say they will not vote for a bill that strips money from the health care law.

Both sides are heading home for the weekend. The Senate is in all week next week but the House isn't coming back until mid next week.

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said he planned to support the measure Friday because he has heard all over his district that Obamacare is bad for small businesses.

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"I'll support the bill and the defund portion," he said. "I think what we're really going to see is letting the legislative process work. We don't know what the Senate will do."

Democrats say risking a shutdown is ill-advised.

"A shutdown for the federal government would have an enormously negative impact on the recovery," Polis said from Boulder. He skipped out on House votes this week to deal with flood recovery back in his district. "It would be the worst possible timing."

White House officials said Thursday they didn't want to talk about a looming shutdown and that they were optimistic that Congress would do its job and pass a funding measure before Oct. 1 that President Barack Obama would sign.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said any funding measure that defunds the Affordable Care Act, less than two weeks before state exchanges were set to open, is a "non-starter."

She noted Obamacare is "the law of the land" and was held up by the U.S. Supreme Court and by voters through Obama's re-election last year.

Federal officials in multiple agencies did not have specifics on how a shutdown — and forced furloughs for the majority of federal workers — would affect flood relief efforts in Colorado.

Some 700 Federal Emergency Management Agency staff are on the ground and more than $4.3 million in disaster grants has been approved by FEMA for homeowners and renters in Colorado. Since the disaster declaration four days ago, nearly 10,200 households have applied for FEMA assistance.

Most of the emergency help and current response would not be affected. Individual assistance to disaster survivors should still be intact since the money has already been allocated.

Longer term recovery efforts, however, staffed by full-time FEMA employees could be affected.

All of Colorado's Republicans say they don't want a government shutdown, arguing it would be bad for the economy and the state.

They stopped short of saying what they will do, however, next week when the Senate likely sends them back a "clean" funding measure that doesn't touch the Affordable Care Act.

"I certainly don't support a policy that will shut down the government," said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma. "I think that's up to the president whether he shuts down the government."

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, who refused interview requests on the vote, said on his website that he doesn't support a government shutdown, "when we have flood victims in need of disaster relief, seniors who depend on Medicare and Social Security, and members of our military and their families who have made so many sacrifices and deserve to be paid."

Colorado's Senate Democrats called action that threatens a government shutdown ridiculous given what the state is going through.

"In the end that hurts Colorado, it hurts America," said Sen. Mark Udall. "The debate ought to be .. about working together to make our government more efficient."

Sen. Michael Bennet said Thursday that "Coloradans want us to stop the political games and come together around common-sense bipartisan solutions that reduce the debt."

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, agreed.

"The (Republicans') gambit of defunding the Affordable Care Act is unacceptable to the President, the Senate, and the American people," she said. "I urge my colleagues to stop these partisan games and work across the aisle to pass a budget that leads to stability."